A Chicago gang member was sentenced last week to six years in prison for retaliating against two witnesses cooperating with an investigation into his gang, going as far as messaging them on social media with, "All rats must die."
Javion Bush, 23, pleaded guilty earlier this year to obstruction of justice after he posted an image to Facebook in 2021 that named two people who testified before a federal grand jury that was investigating his street gang, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday.
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He wrote "All rats must die" and tagged the two cooperating witnesses and threatened one of them directly in Facebook Messenger with the same statement, authorities said.
"Without witnesses, the truth about an incident will never be found," Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry III wrote in a sentencing memorandum. "Witnesses should be protected at all costs and threatening them should be sanctioned swiftly and severely."
The two witnesses testified before a federal grand jury. Bush learned their identities after viewing a law enforcement report provided to a fellow gang member being prosecuted for murder.
Federal authorities had been investigating the gang for several years and convicted several associates and three gang leaders this summer for racketeering conspiracy.
A jury found the gang was responsible for six murders on Chicago's South Side.
